Norwalk Hospital joins Western Connecticut Health Network

Robert Miller

Updated 11:35 pm, Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A signing ceremony to announce Norwalk Community Hospital's affiliation with Western Connecticut Health Network was held at Dolce Norwalk Conference Center in Norwalk, Conn. on Tuesday January 22, 2013. Trustee Victor Liss, left, witnesses Western CT Health Network President and CEO John Murphy sign paperwork and trustee James Kennedy, right, witnesses as Norwalk Hospital President and CEO Dan Debarba signs as well.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Western CT Health Network President and CEO John Murphy looks on as Norwalk Hospital President and CEO Dan Debarba, right, makes remarks after completion of a signing ceremony to fomalize Norwalk Community Hospital's affiliation with Western Connecticut Health Network at Dolce Norwalk Conference Center in Norwalk, Conn. on Tuesday January 22, 2013.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Until then, Norwalk Hospital and the network are limited in how much they can collaborate, said Dan DeBarba Jr., the president and CEO of Norwalk Hospital.

But they can concentrate on laying the groundwork for their affiliation, he said.

"On Day One, we'll be on the ground running," DeBarba said.

With that approval, the network will expand to serve an area including southern Litchfield County and much of Fairfield County, as well as towns along the Connecticut-New York border. According to the health network, it will offer care to about 620,000 people.

"It will be a pretty big chunk of western Connecticut," DeBarba said.

Combined, the three hospitals will have 784 beds, a staff of 1,300 physicians, and more than 6,000 employees.

Under the reorganization, Murphy will be president and CEO of the entire network. DeBarba will remain president and CEO of Norwalk Hospital and become executive vice president of the network.

Norwalk Hospital and the health network had announced in April 2011, that they had begun talks aimed at affiliation. The two spent the next eight months in due diligence -- studying each other's financial and operational records to learn if they wanted to proceed with the union.

"We wanted to be very careful," DeBarba said. "Once you enter into an agreement like this, there's no turning back."

The announcement Tuesday mirrors the agreement Danbury and New Milford hospitals reached in July, 2010. Deborah Weymouth now holds the position of chief executive of New Milford Hospital and senior vice president of the network.

The three nonprofit hospitals are joining into a network to allow sharing of services and training, in hopes of offering better and more efficient care at a lower cost.

Because of the changes happening in health care in the United States in general, and with the onset of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, at least half of the state's 31 hospitals are now affiliated with a larger network.

DeBarba said that at the start, the affiliation will provide efficiencies in hospital administration and in purchasing supplies.

But he also said the union of the three hospitals will provide them with access to specialists they might not have on staff.

Murphy said that in some cases, doctors with subspecialities might not have enough patients in any one hospital to establish a thriving practice. With all three hospitals cooperating, that becomes more of a possibility, as participating in medical research and trials, Murphy said.

"It could be with cancer, with heart disease, with lupus, with Lyme disease," he said.

Murphy also said the affiliation can benefit if the three hospitals work to establish top-quality standards in medical care across the boards.

"If we can identify best practices, let's share them," he said.

Having a larger network also gives the doctors in all three hospitals greater opportunity for medical education and for sharing in research work. That, in turn, means the network can attract the best doctors to the area.

Having a larger network will also allow the hospitals to withstand some of the changes coming in health care, Murphy said. If, as expected, the federal government cuts funding for teaching hospitals, then being in a larger network will allow Danbury and Norwalk, both teaching institutions, to share resources.

Federal reimbursement for health care soon will move from paying doctors and hospitals for the number of procedures they perform and toward payments based on how well patients do after receiving medical care.

Figuring out how that system will work will take as many good minds as possible, Murphy said.